Modern automobiles are typically assembled with a sheet of front window glass that is secured to the vehicle frame over a window opening at some time during the assembly of the overall automobile. A caulking or sealant is applied around the perimeter of the frame, which defines the opening and upon which the sheet of glass is placed in order to seal it to the automobile frame. Alternatively, the caulking may be applied about the sheet of glass which is then inserted in the frame opening. Typically the front window glass is placed on some form of spacer that acts to hold the glass at a desired position. It is desirable in modern automobile assembly environments that as many of these assembly steps as possible be capable of robotic assembly.
Problems arise with the prior art automobile glass assembly methods due to the manufacturing tolerances encountered with the various members. In the prior art, a spacer member is typically attached to the vehicle frame and the glass is supported on top of the spacer member. It is desirable that an equal gap be formed between the glass and the vehicle frame at all four sides of the perimeter of the window glass since an equal gap ensures that the gap will not be unnecessarily large at any one point. This is often difficult to achieve due to the manufacturing tolerances found on the three distinct members that will create the gap between the window glass and the vehicle frame. First the space formed within the vehicle frame that acts to receive the window glass or the window glass itself has its own manufacturing tolerances that may cause it to be relatively larger or smaller than an idealized dimension for which they were designed. In addition, the spacer member may be larger or smaller than the spacer dimension that was used to calculate the desired dimensions of the window glass or vehicle frame space, in addition, the glass could be placed upon the caulking slightly out-of-line, thus creating an overly larger gap. For all of these reasons, a manual assembler would often need to adjust the position of the window glass within the vehicle frame in order to accommodate the various manufacturing tolerances and optimize the position of the glass. In order to equalize the gap, the assembler may have needed to lift the window glass off the spacers. When this happens, the window glass would often settle downwardly back onto the spacers and become too far removed from the top of the vehicle frame, that is there would be an overly large gap between the top of the glass and the vehicle frame. In addition, it is time consuming for a manual assembler to have to accommodate the manufacturing tolerances by moving the window glass around within the opening on the automobile frame.
The present invention relates to an adjustable spacer member for use in supporting the rear window glass in an automobile. This adjustable spacer member allows the surface of the spacer member that supports the window glass to be adjusted upwardly or downwardly in order to accommodate the various manufacturing tolerances that are encountered in any individual automobile. This rear window adjustable spacer was on sale over 1 year prior to the filing date of this application and thus the adjustable rear window spacer is prior art for this application. The details of this prior art rear window spacer will be disclosed with reference to the drawings below.
Problems have arisen with prior art spacers in that they do not provide a lateral support for the window glass. In particular the adjustable prior art spacer did not have any surface that provided a lateral support to the rear window glass panel that it was supporting. This could result in the glass being secured at a lateral position that is either too far out or too far into the vehicle frame.